Halloween 2009

We had to relax a little bit on Saturday afternoon after all of the soccer fun in the morning (which ended up lasting until almost 3pm). Then, it was time to get ready for the Party at the Circle - the top end of our street is a cul-de-sac. Everyone brought something to share and the kids went straight to the trampoline and swing in a neighbor's yard. There were more boys than girls, so they pretty much took over the trampoline. It was overcome by Wolverines, dinosaurs, our Bakugan and Star Wars characters. We enjoyed meeting some neighbors from that end of the street who(m?) we had not yet met. Many commented about the 'turn-over' on our street as more young families are moving in. Several couples mentioned that they were the young couples when they moved in 30+ years ago!

Once it was declared time to Trick-or-Treat, the kids TOOK OFF. It took some doing to reign them in and convince them to wait on the dads. I came home to answer the door and just had the best time listening to the children going up and down the street.

McIver and Harry, our next door neighbor

Olivia with her loot (look how long her legs look!)

McIver dumped his candy and immediately began to sort it. The teacher in me was gloating that he's 'doing math' and doesn't even realize it!

Once again, we selected a few treats to keep and gave the rest to the Halloween Fairy. You might recall that the Halloween Fairy is a distant cousin of the Tooth Fairy and doesn't want children to eat too much junk food/candy. So, children can leave their candy out for the Halloween Fairy who will take it (this year he's giving it to our school so it can be sent to our troops) and leave a small treasure in its place.

McIver wasn't sure what to make of his parachute guy. He was quite grouchy this morning so the treat was a bit of a let down, but when he got home from school he started launching the parachute from any high elevation he could find.
Olivia's picture with her treasure from the Halloween Fairy didn't turn out. She received two packs of "animal bracelets" which are all the craze. They remind me of the jelly bracelets we wore when I was in middle school, but are shaped like animals when you take them off. The girls trade them and wear about 25 at a time.

Neighborhood Halloween Party

Have I mentioned how great our neighborhood is!? We were invited to a Neighborhood Halloween Block Party on Sunday afternoon. It was wonderful - we saw lots of people that we already know and met even more. The kids had a blast just running around playing and eating.

Surprise, Surprise! McIver is Dan - the main character in the Bakugan cartoon. It was all I could do to convince him not to take all of his Bakugans to the party. Here he is showing off the BakuSphere he received from a friend. Now he has a space for every single Bakugan and card that he owns.

I was glad that Olivia decided to be Miley Cyrus for Halloween. She waffled back and forth between being Miley and being a witch. But, let me tell you, the witch costumes are not appropriate for an 8 year old. So, she opted for one of Cacoo's old dance costumes. They're sitting beside the giant pumpkin that we carved last week (and by 'we' I mean 'me' - if you look closely, you can see Olivia's design, but once she finished with the design, she took off to do more interesting things).

Miley & Pippy Longstocking (I need to introduce Olivia to Pippy Longstocking - I was embarrassed that she had no idea who she was!)